Competition was being redefined with the rise of airline alliances. Star Alliance was the first at scale global one in 1997 but there was a precursor tripartite alliance between Singapore, Swiss and Delta airlines that begun in 1990 and besides network linkages and preferential code shared flights, there were significant opportunities to collaborate on the ground especially in the key airports of Changi, Kloten and Hartsfield-Jackson. I was fortunate to have played a part in getting such ventures going.
It was also here, while in the centre of Europe that I first saw low cost carriers, like Ryanair and Easyjet that were founded in 1985 and 1995 respectively to serve not just the lower end of the market but to democratise air travel to a whole new segment of travellers. In almost that same period, Emirates and Qatar Airways (founder in 1985 and 1993 respectively) changed the game in the upper segment and gave SQ real competition for superior inflight service.
On the other side of the world, another profound act of democratisation also took place. CERN, where Tim Berners-Lee worked, made the World Wide Web technology publicly available in 1993 ensuring that it was free for anyone to use and develop.
It was while in Zurich that a colleague first taught me how to log on and access information on the early Web pages then.
So from both a real and virtual aspects, people could travel more easily. With a fraction of the budget, people can now fly to a new land and on the web, you can experience new lands even more easily.
Its apt that D & I are now back in Zurich three decades later on the start of our very own WWW travel project. If we are so blessed to have a life expectancy like our elders, we could just about have three more decades to enjoy this project.
In our case, WWW stands for Walk, Wheels, Water. Yes, we would like to see the world.
- slowly, by talking Walks while we can still do so.
- rolling over roads and rail, on Wheels, to see more of the land
- and for a different perspective, we would also see the world from Water, on board cruises.
So, here we are in the modernist Kloten Airport, Zurich on our first WWW trip. It is nice to start from our erstwhile home of 1995.
In Switzerland, we travelled mostly on Wheels, and I drive safely (and with a little too much stress, I might add) for 300kms and so glad to see the country from behind the windscreen captured in posterity by D.
No better time to get reacquainted in this country we had lived in 30 years ago. It is still beautiful, esp with its lakes and mountains and made even more so with family now living here ...
From the smaller towns of Alterndorf to Lachen to Boningen and the better known ones of Lucerne, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland is charming, clean and at this time of the year, cold. Thankfully, our friends here provide all the warmth needed, opening their homes and sharing their food (fondue no less). And the village where we lived, Wangen, retains its homely familiar and familial looks.
PS: most of the new lands I brought D to recently have been in Central Asia, Middle East and Africa... so its right to start this first WWW trip in Europe. Portugal was where we spent more time and more about that in the next post.
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